LAS VEGAS—One thing about watching television. If you don’t like what’s on the channel you can push a button and change channels. If the program you are watching is enjoyable but you get fed up with a string of commercials, you can sit up and go shi-shi.

Although most channels carry weather reports, I find them boring. Same old, same old. The weatherman gets in front of the camera and starts talking about wind directions, high and low pressure, coastal eddy. Who really gives a damn?

I watch the weather report to find out if it’s going to rain tomorrow or the next day.  Or as in the case of the past few days, whether the cold spell will last and if there is going to snow in the higher elevation.

The latter is important to me when I am planning a trip to Vegas. As most of you who drive to Vegas know there are two high spots on Highway 15 where snow can become a problem. I think I chatted about this a couple of times in the past.

The first is Cajon Pass. Elevation is about 4,000 feet. However, local weather people give a pretty accurate account of the road conditions as far as snow is concerned.
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What those of us who live in Los Angeles never hear, however, is the snow condition at the second high spot on Highway 15. That would be about 15 miles north of Baker.

I’ve been caught at this point twice during the many times I have traveled to Vegas in the winter time. The first time, I was just stuck because I wasn’t equipped with tire chains. After that experience, I purchased chains and leave them in the car all the time.

However, the other problem is how to put the chains on the tire. I didn’t know how so I had to hire an enterprising young man who was assisting other drivers in the same boat as I.

The charge? How about a cool 40 bucks! After that, when I returned home from Vegas, I practice putting on the chains in my driveway. No more problems after that. Actually, rather than worrying about snow on the road, having your air conditioning working is more critical when coming here.

I always have my man, Isao Kawahara check out my air conditioning unit before I begin my trip. Getting stuck in snow isn’t half as bad as driving in 120-degree heat without the air condition working.

Well, things must be pretty slow in Vegas if all I have to talk about is the weather, If those of you thought it was cold in the Los Angeles area the past few days, try walking outside in Vegas.

Of course, since I spend almost all of my time inside the casino at The Cal, I don’t have to worry about the temperature outside. However, the slot machines I play all seem as cold as the weather in Downtown Vegas. Maybe I should wear a pair of woolen gloves when I sit down in front of my favorite slots.
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Got a note from a reader in which a lengthy article on the passing of columnist Art Buckwald. He was 81 and one of the most widely syndicated newspaper columnists around.

Gee, I must be getting old, too. When I read the story, I thought to myself, “he was ONLY 81.’ Remember when we Nisei thought 70 was old? When we plan activities too far ahead (like maybe month or so) we are always concerned about losing friend and having to attend memorial services for that person.

I know I had to miss quite a few over the past few years because of advance scheduling. Ironically, when a person misses these services, people seem t notice it more than if one is on hand to attend them.
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As those of us in the vernacular media know, we always look for stories with a “Japanese angle.” That is, where a Japanese American might be a prominent part of the article. In most cases, the stories are used to hype the image of people in our community. Thus, we seldom see stories that have negative tones. For example, I don’t know if any of the Japanese American newspaper will carry the story about a softball player on the Hawaii Pacific team. Her name is Kellie Nishikida and she was arrested for selling methamphetamine. The most ironic part of the story was that she was caught selling it  to another Sansei named Krystle Kido. The price Kido paid Nishikida? A mere $1,000. It was front page news in Honolulu where the arrest was made. _________________________________________

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Well, our thoughts are in the Islands, I remember when Honolulu was a safe place to walk about, especially in the Waikiki area. The only thing a tourist had to be concerned about were pickpockets and occasionally being “hit on” by street walkers. Today, simply waking around is considered dangerous.

Reason is simple. Too many cars and too many drivers who pay little attention to pedestrians. So far this year (only mid-January), seven pedestrian deaths have been recorded, mostly the elderly. Two of the victims were Japanese Americans.

One thing, I haven’t heard of any Japanese tourists being hit by cars, while they are visiting Hawaii. This is probably because with traffic in Japan being what it is, they are much more cautious about crossing streets.
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Since my brief hospital stay a few weeks ago, many readers have sent me how to be sure that the food we eat is safe.

One reader wrote, “avoid raw eggs.” Isn’t that a sign of the times? When I was growing up, one of my favorite meals was a raw egg cracked over the bowl of steaming hot rice with shoyu poured on top of the egg after it was stirred into the rice.

I’m sure a lot of the senior Nisei remember the same thing. I never head of anyone getting ill by eating raw eggs over rice.  Today, they talk about salmonella bacterial in raw eggs.

Needless to say, I don’t eat raw eggs on rice anymore. Heck, I don’t even eat “sunnyside up” eggs because, after all, in this style of cooking the yoke of the eggs are actually raw.
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Here in Vegas, one of the most popular slyles of food is the buffet. Almost every hotel serves buffet style meals. For the most part, I don’t worry about dining buffet style, although every once in a while I see youngsters use their fingers to grab the food at the buffet counter.

Heck, I even saw one person taste a dish and then toss it back in the bowl it was being served from. These, of curse, are rare happenings so I feel comfortable with buffet food. The Cal, Main Street and Fremont all have buffet service and I dine at each of them. Needless to say, the reason people enjoy buffet is the wide variety of dishes that are available.

For the Nisei, most buffet offer Japanese good, including miso soup. Yes, some also have sushi, although they might not be as good as Japanese eateries in the city which are strictly Japanese.

One thing about sushi at non-Japanese restaurants is the quality of the rice. To me, the rice is as important as the other food in the sushi. The only problem with buffet-style eating is that I simply eat too much. You know the old saying, the eyes are bigger than the stomach and I tend to load up my plate. Heck, if I lived in Vegas, I might get up to my weight of 40 years ago, when I tipped the scale at 240 pounds.
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What’s an adult joke? How about this one: a couple had been married for 50 years. They were sitting at the breakfast table one morning when the wife said, “Just thing, 50 years ago we were sitting here at this breakfast table together.”

“I know,” the old man said, “we were probably sitting here naked as a jaybird 50 years ago.” “Well,” Granny snickered, “let’s relive some old times,” whereupon the two stripped to the buff and sat down at the table.

“You know, honey,” the little old lady breathlessly said, “my nipples are as hot for you today as they were 50 years ago” “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Gramps relied, “One is in your coffee and the other is in your oatmeal.”
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Fellow columnist Wimpy Hiroto mentioned it in his writing the other day. It’s about calendar companies giving out to customers. And I agree that the number of calendars I have been getting over the years have been reduced to only one or two.

The reason I am mentioning this is that reader Teruo Hosaka said he took over some extra calendars he received to the Keiro Retirement Home and the residents were really happy to get them.

Teruo suggested that these who get a lot of calendars might consider donating them to Keiro. I have a few that I received and will make the donation to Keiro because I have come to realize how important having a calendar hanging on the wall can be.

If I didn’t jot down appointments and there activities on my calendar I would probably miss about 50 percent of them. Those who might want to make a donation of their extra calendars can do so by mailing them to 320 So. Boyle Ave., Los Angeles, CA. 90033. ATTN: Program Services. And, oh yes, the residents can also use pens and papers that some companies give out to customers.

By the way, while on the subject of calendars, I am curious why after years and years of receiving calendars from Japan Air Lines and All Nippon Airways, I didn’t get one this year from either firm. I know that Japan Air Lines is having a tough time financially, according to reports from Japan, but does cutting out calendars make that much difference?

Well, maybe I was signaled out because I don’t travel to Japan as frequently as I used to. However, receiving calendars didn’t mean that I would or would not use the two carriers named above.

Perhaps it’s because many of the people I knew with the two airlines became good friends but most of them have retired. You know what they say about friendship. Friendship is like going shi-shi—in your pants, everyone can see it but only you feel the true warmth.
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A note on Japan. It is pretty well-known that the Japanese are heavy drinkers but in the past year, the police reported fewer cases of public drunkenness on the streets. And guess what? They say that karaoke may be one of the reasons for the reduced number of drunkards.

It is said that those who sing at karaoke bars are less likely to get drunk. That’s kind of ironic. Listening to some of these people sing is enough to make one drink. As we all know, karaoke has become very popular in the U.S. The only problem is the way karaoke is pronounced in the U.S. Everyone refers it as “carry oki.” You know, like trying to carry someone from Oklahoma, “carry oki.”

Perhaps someone should teach those who are karaoke fans to pronounce it properly which can be done phonetically. They can pass out sheets of paper with the following: “Karaoke is really pronounced ‘ka-ra-oh-ke,’”
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Thank goodness for the telephone answering machine. I can be away from our house and still pick up messages left by callers. That’s how I found out that someone actually missed the usual long length of my column.

Because I was ready to fly the coop and head up here to Vegas, I only wrote four typewritten pages last Thursday. When I clicked on my cell phone to clear my messages, I heard the soft-sweet voice of Maggie, who as I always mention, retypes my column for publication. When she saw only four pages, she assumed that somewhere my fax machine got messed up and the other three pages (I usually write seven pages) were lost in the transmission.

Ah, it was good someone noticed and I was actually missed or not being my usual long-winded self. So, here I am, with my favorite slot machine calling out, “Hey, where’s Horse?” sitting in my room hammering out this column.

It’s kind of becoming a Sunday ritual whenever I am spending time here at The Cal. The clerk at the front office of the hotel, who is always kind enough to use the fax machine to send my stuff, always asks me, “Don’t you have to send a column?” when I forget. Actually, I don’t forget, I usually run around trying to find something to write about that won’t bore readers to sleep.
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Hoping that my next dateline will read, “Kahului, Maui,” especially in January.
In a recent story I came across the perfect vacation spot for every month of the year was listed. For January, it was the Island of Maui.

The article read: Maui, an island paradise that even the whales love. Go to Maui in January and you’ll be twice blessed. First, most of the holiday crowds have gone home already. And second, you’ll catch the annual migration of Pacific humpback whales, which pass by Maui’s warm waters on their way back to Alaska. You can take a whale-watching cruise to get up close to these giant mammals, but you’re just as likely to spot them leaping out of the water while you lounge lazily on one of Maui’s gorgeous white-sand beaches.

Ironically, as many trips as I have made to, I haven’t seen a single whale. Maybe it’s because I spend too mulch time in the backyard of my relatives who probably consume more beer than any whale.

Well, actually seven of my relatives are visiting Vegas, which gave me the excuse to join them here. They usually come when the weather is more typically Nevada (hot) so I don’t know if they came equipped with cold weather gear. The probably don’t own long johns, sweaters and gloves. But I’m sure we will have a whale of a time so I won’t miss the real whales that much.
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Just to let you all know that I didn’t leave all my thoughts “back home,” I must report that the “Wartime residents of Santa Anita” may be a “go.” I received a number of people who said they would attend. Yes, the list even included George Nakano, the former State Assemblyman. He said, “I saw your article on a possible reunion at Santa Anita. Please add me to the list. Although I have been Santa Anita for many events, I’ve never been to the reunion. I was 6 years old when we went to Santa Anita Assembly Center on April 29, 1942, I still remember leaving a parking lot (I found out it was St. Mary Episcopal Church parking lot) on a convoy of busses escorted by police on motorcycle.”

If we have the reunion (I am planning in March), it will be nice to have a few celebrities like George in the group. Aloha for now. Back to the slot machines.
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George Yoshinaga writes from Gardena and can be reached via e-mail at horsesmouth2000@hotmail.com. Opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.